Tag Archives: diabetes

Fellow Spoonie Pokemon Trainers! I’ve figured out a few tricks in order to get a good experience of playing Pokemon Go and not completely spending all of your spoons for several weeks.

If you close the app and just go to the home screen (don’t close it completely or you’ll have to go through the lengthy log in process every time) you can open it up again and your GPS/character will be wandering around for a bit. This counts as distance. I’ve been doing this for hatching eggs in Houston, where it’s almost impossible for even abled people to go out during the day in the summer.

Use Incense! You can attract Pokemon to come to you rather than spending spoons to go searching. You’ll usually get more common Pokemon (Bug and Normal types), but it adds up! The more stardust you have, the better.

Lures! You don’t have to walk too much when you’re at a Pokestop with lures. They come to you. Make sure you’re well stocked on Pokeballs.

Get a friend to drive you around. You’re in charge of catching Pokemon for them, though. Do not Pokemon and drive. It’s actually hilarious trying to catch two at once. Maybe do this around a neighborhood or empty parking lots where erratic driving is a bit more forgivable.

Stock up on common Pokemon in your area (Pidgey, Rattata, Caterpie, Weedle, etc.) and their respective candies. Then, use your Lucky Egg and evolve them during that 30 minute period. You gain about 600 EXP when you evolve something, so with the Lucky Egg, you’ll get 1200 EXP for one evolution! You don’t have to use stardust to evolve anything, either.

Got a wagon? Use it. Have friends or family members pull you around. It’ll remind you of the good old days. They seem a bit better for rougher terrain than wheelchairs.

Here’s something I’ve discovered myself! If you’re in the same spot for a while, some random Pokemon just show up! It’s usually the more common ones in your area, but the more stardust you can get, the better.

How to get whatever Eeveelution you want: (Ok, don’t kill me if this doesn’t work, but I myself have seen two successful desired evolutions with this method. I’ll update it once I’m able to do this myself since I’m low on Eevee candy.) You nickname the Eevees before evolving them. It’s Rainer to get Vaporeon, Sparky to get Jolteon, and Pyro to get Flareon. This is based off of the episode from season 1 of Pokemon where the kid brother gets pressured to evolve his Eevee using an evolution stone. Please comment below if this method actually works for you! I don’t want to be spreading misinformation.
Edit: I’m absolutely positive this is real. I’ve seen it about three more times and I’ve done it myself to get a Flareon and a Jolteon after getting two Vaporeon by chance. It works.

The curve ball. You can do this by spinning the Pokeball around in circles before you throw it. You can tell it’s charged up if you see sparks flying from it. It’s a bit harder to catch stuff, but you get an extra 10 EXP for doing it successfully.

Here’s one I’ve just heard recently. You can download the Ingress app and search for Pokestops in your area since the Pokemon Go app doesn’t map out outside your area. Landmarks are also marked in the Ingress app so you can plan out routes and breaks. Pokestops refresh every 5 minutes or so, so you can rest in a shady area near one and farm items and 50 EXP every time.

This is something I have been trying to tell myself, but know when to stop. I got really close to hurting myself from walking nearly 5 km in one go to hatch an egg. My knees and ankles were radiating with pain. I was surprised that people near me couldn’t feel it. Don’t do that. Ash wouldn’t want that. He knew when it was time to stop and take a rest for the day. There’s no need to feel like you need to compete with others that are playing. It’s just a fun game (that should’ve probably had a bit more time spent on it with all the server problems there have been, but I digress).

And as a final question to Spoonie Trainers: I know we all can’t go on a Pokemon journey, but what kind of life do you think you would have if Pokemon were real? I’ve always pictured myself keeping them as pets or guard animals – most of them being abandoned strays before I find them. This is the case with almost all of my pets, so I figured that wouldn’t change in this fantasy world.

Hey guys! I’m doing so much better than I was two months ago. I’m finally on Humira! I’ve had two doses already (6 shots total) and I feel already 100% better. Humira burns like crazy when you get the shot, but it’s a great trade off because I can finally eat things like a normal human!

Many people seem to think they understand physical illnesses more than mental illnesses. You often hear people saying to people with mental illnesses that it’s all in your head and you can stop being depressed by just thinking happy thoughts. They couldn’t be more wrong about that.

With physical illnesses, most people tend to be understanding if you have a cold or the flu, or even a migraine. They tell you to take some medicine and rest. You may even get reprimanded if you try to go to work/school again too early because you might get sicker.

When it comes to invisible physical illnesses, that’s the outlier no one expected.

I’ve lost count at how many people have suggested different diets to me instead of letting me eat what I feel comfortable with. How do you expect me to go paleo when I can’t even eat a salad without doubling over in pain a few hours later? I can’t go vegan or vegetarian, as much as I’d like to.

One time I tried kale and it came out looking the same way it did when I ate it. Painful? You bet.

I also like steak and chicken a bit too much to let meat go. Plus, chicken is one of the few things I can eat without any problems afterward.

I’ve also had people tell me “At least it’s not cancer!”

Like really, I’m supposed to be overjoyed that I don’t have something that can potentially go into remission and possibly get cured. Ulcerative colitis tends to go into remission if you get the right medication going, but it can come back at the drop of a hat.

I’ve heard general statements that my fatigue is all in my head and if I just workout more, I’ll be fine.

Yeah, you try telling that to my anemia. I’m sure it’ll start letting up after I pass out on an elliptical a few times.

What I’m trying to say is, that physical illnesses are often thrown under the bus when you’re talking about mental illnesses. I’m starting to get really tired of people refusing to see what they’re doing is destructive. When I say I’m sick, I’m fucking sick. It probably doesn’t look it, though.

I nearly died from blood loss because no one believed me when I said I was sick until it was almost too late. I never want to be that sick again.

Now, let this be known that I’m nothing but for promoting mental health awareness, but if your method of informing people is to compare it to making people doubt physical health, you’re doing it wrong.

Don’t forget that invisible illnesses exist. Mental illnesses are really just the cause of a physically “sick” brain. Really, mental illnesses are physical illnesses too. There’s a reason why medications often work wonders for people.

Mental illnesses should be taught alongside other invisible illnesses. However, most people don’t understand invisible illnesses and probably will never understand – not even if someone close to them has one. You can’t understand what it’s like to have an invisible illness unless you actually have one.

One thing that I left out from my update yesterday is that I was diagnosed with a new illness. I now have type 2 diabetes. It’s because of the Prednisone that my body has become so dependent on. A side effect is that your blood sugar can skyrocket while you’re on it and that’s exactly what happened to me. It was more likely to happen because I have several family members with both types, but mostly type 1. It was only a matter of time.

Basically, Prednisone is now hurting me more than it’s helping me, but if I’m to ever get off of it, I’m going to end up in the hospital again.

In the hospital, they had done a three month test on my blood to see if it’s been high for that long and it has. Well… I’ve been on the steroids almost constantly since March. I’ve been off of them for maybe a little over a week total since then. I literally can’t get off of this medication until I start on some sort of alternative that can suppress my immune system since Remicade didn’t work long enough.

Now that school’s started again, things have gotten kinda rocky with how my health can hold up. I feel like my friends expect me to keel over at almost any second with the questions of people asking how I’m doing.

I’m not really mad or annoyed or anything, obviously. I know it’s because they care or they’re curious to how I’m still even kicking. It’s just funny to hear them ask something and see their eyes saying something else as they look me over. Invisible illnesses are tricky like that. With a cold, you can see someone’s runny nose and pale face. With me, there’s just about nothing. At this point, you can only see the bruises on my arms as proof that I was in the hospital.

And maybe my hospital wrist band, if you’re looking for it. I’m still wearing that for some reason.

I’m now on a new medication called Janumet. My mom was on it for a while and she said it’s worked a miracle on her. I’m not sure what to think. She had my primary care doctor put me on it even though my doctor in the hospital suggested two other medications for me.

I guess it’s better for me that I’m taking one medication instead of two. I already breakfast on a steady diet of at least six medications to start off my day. Most of them horse pill sized.

One thing I’ve discovered, though, is that I need to eat before I take Janumet. It tends to make me a bit nauseous if I don’t. This makes my morning dose a little difficult because I’m not much of a breakfast eater.

I know, I know. Shh.

But I’ve taken this news pretty well since the 23rd of August. I had received news months ago that I had the mark of high blood sugar show up in a blood test. A second test was done, which confirmed the first test. Then a third test was done at my primary care doctor’s office, which had said that my blood sugar was normal. That test alone dashed my fears for several months, but here we are now with an official diagnosis for diabetes.

Watch out, world, this ulcerative pancolitic diabetic doesn’t have much left to lose.